Jamie Ball- 360 Nationals Success
(White Lightning Motorsports) –
This week the Delta Oil #5J would race on both Friday August 6th and Saturday August 7th at the Knoxville Raceway for 360 Nationals. The engine problem has been found and fixed thanks to Ostrich Racing Engines. With the problem fixed and our car ready to go I was excited to perform well at my first 360 Nationals.
I was scheduled to qualify on Thursday August 5th for 360 Nationals, but Ostrich Racing Engines needed extra time to figure out the source of our engine problems. It turns out that our entire last month’s worth of engines problems were all caused by a radiator hose. Thanks to the entire staff at Ostrich Racing Engines the problems are fixed and we can focus on racing and getting me more seat time. Now that we can put the problems behind us we can focus on doing well at 360 Nationals.
I would draw a #18 pill for my qualifying slot. This would be some very good luck as the race track would start to slick off in hot laps. I was the 7th car out and I would register a best lap time of 17.002. This was good enough for 4th overall at the specific time. Throughout the duration of qualifying forty six more 360 sprint cars would take the track. Only two guys would go on to post better lap times then I did. Those guys were Three Time World of Outlaws Champion Sammy Swindell and Darren Long. I would finish 6th overall in qualifying out of fifty three cars. This was a good thing and a bad thing. This means I would have to race my butt off in the heat race to make the A-Main since I would be starting third row inside (5th). I would line up 5th in my heat race and I would go onto finish in that position, missing the A-Main transfer by one position. Next up was the B-Main, I was scheduled to start second row outside (4th), right behind the great Sammy Swindell. The green would fly and I would fall back one position into the 5th position. Then on lap five a yellow came out and I would line up behind Swindell, Dover, Peters and Wright. That was pretty cool to have those four extremely talented guys running in front of me. On the restart I would stick right with Gary Wright for a few laps until I was having problems running the cushion. The cushion was really thick and choppy. It made it difficult for me to run and at the end of the race I would fall back to the 9th position.
Overall thanks to my qualifying time I was able to line myself up in a great position for Saturday nights Finale. I was 42nd overall in points. This would line me up first row outside of the C-Main for Saturday night. I was really proud of this accomplishment, I had beaten sixty other racers overall in this points system. For my rookie 360 nationals my team and I felt that was pretty good.
My goal was to win the C-Main and transfer to the B-Main. I would line up next to my good friend #6 Danny Heskin. The green flag would fly and he would get the jump on me at the line. I would file into second position and stay there for the remainder of the next twelve laps. I was running the cushion in one and two and the bottom in three and four. I only hit the cushion perfect two or three times out of the twelve laps and that is where Danny would stretch me. Three and four on the other hand was my strength where I would catch Danny. I would go onto to finish a close second by approximately five car lengths. Finishing second position would earn me a transfer spot into the 360 Nationals B-Main. There I would start 20th and go onto finish in 21st. Overall I couldn’t be happier about our performance at this year 360 Nationals. For my first year in sprint cars this is better than we ever expected. We will carry this momentum into the last two races at Knoxville in hopes of earning our best finishes of the season.
This week the White Lightning Motorsports Team plans to race on Sunday August 8, 2010 at the Knoxville Raceway. This Sunday is the USAC Non-Wing 410 race with the 305’s as the support class. Come out and support myself and the rest of the White Lightning Motorsports race team at Knoxville Raceway this Saturday.
Keep an eye on my progress this week and beyond at www.jamieball.com
if you would like to receive the weekly releases, send an email with the subject line “Jamie” to jamie@jamieball.com
White Lightning Motorsports would like to thank Delta Oil, L & J Enterprise Inc, White Lightning Logistics, JJ Kane Auctioneers, Iowa State Savings Bank, Fragola, VP Racing Fuels, Bell Helmets, Keizer Wheels, Driver Websites, Pro Shocks, Vortex Wings, Hoosier Racing Tire, DMI, King Racing Products, BR Motorsports, Wilwood Brakes, and all other family and friends for their support.
- administrator on Aug 25, 2010
- Article Date: 8/7/2010